Wednesday, August 20, 2008

So, to explain, no we don't own two new cars. We're not that rich. :( Brian might be able to work legally at last, but he's not making that much. :)

I sold my bumblebee.

I know, I loved the car. I truly did. But I had a lot of problems with the dealership. Including one that could conceivably have lead to me suing the dealership. And the "service manager" getting pissy with me and hanging up on me because I wasn't happy with his "service" and called and made a complaint. Lets just say it was pretty ugly and to the point I didn't want to deal with them. And since smart is so new in the US, there are only 50 dealerships total to cover all of the US. But the car itself was great. And I had a friend who also loved them. And his local dealership was adding several thousands in dealer add ons... But his dealership is great. Wonderful even. So we made a deal.

He's happy and I'm happy. I'd have loved to have a smart. But I WON'T deal with the dealership.

So say hello to my new blue Elantra! To be rechristened Xvart the Second once I find out how to transfer the plates from the black Elantra. It's pretty, if anonymous, and it gets good gas mileage and will get me to and from work safely. AND it worked out to be significantly cheaper than my smart with the end of model year deals. I'm pleased with it!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Southwest rocks when they lose one of your bags. Unsurprisingly,Delta sucks when they lose your husband.

It is possible to go for a conference for a week and only end uppaying for 3 dinners and 4 lunches. This will confuse your admin noend when submitting your expense report.

When the admin in charge of booking your travel "forgets" to do so,you can't always get reservations for the cheap conference hotel. Norcan you always get the 'cheap' flight option. This is not your fault.You should not have to pay the difference from what was originallyprojected. You will likely have to fight accounting over it though.But when the difference is almost $800, it's worth the fight!

No matter how many times you tell people you'll be out of work for aweek, reset your voicemail and send an email reminder, someone *will*be ticked off they didn't know you wouldn't be here to do theiremergency samples.

If you ask nicely and smile a lot, sometimes, *sometimes* the SEMvendors will let you play with their toys. WOHOO! Geekgasm! Or, asBrian put it when I got back to the hotel after "Is my little geekthrilled with getting to play with expensive new geek toys?"... If Ihave the chance, I'll post a couple of the SEM's I took.